World Washi Summit

[Press Release]

June 7 - 15 2008 Toronto and Environs

The World Washi Summit will be an international gathering to celebrate the quality craftsmanship and sustainability of washi, the paper that has been handcrafted by the Japanese for over 1400 years. Totally dedicated to washi, the Summit will be the first event of its type ever held and will feature the works of more than 100 international and Canadian artists whose talents bring the paper to life.

Principal guests of the Summit will be three of Japan’s talented papermakers performing demonstrations on how washi is actually made. They will meet face-to-face with the Summit artists and see first hand how washi has found new use in other lands. Other participants will include the curators who exhibit washi, its distributors, and the art-buying public eager to learn about it. The majority of events will be free.

Creative works with washi by artists from Canada, South Africa, England, Scotland, USA, Chile, Japan, China, Finland, Iceland, and Mexico will be among those exhibited in some 35 galleries and venues in and around Toronto. The Japan Foundation will host an exhibition Washi over Time showing traditional uses and the migration of textile patterns onto paper (chiyogami).

Other events will include workshops by international guests on using washi, and demonstrations by artists, including stonecut printing by Inuit printmaker Kavavaow Mannomee; lectures on Life in a Papermaking Community and on Chiyogami: the UK's New Marbled Paper; a look at the collection of washi books in the ROM's East Asian Library; a fashion show and a washi bazaar at the Gladstone Hotel; and to cap off the week a Grand Review with artists, curators and papermakers.

The World Washi Summit is the brainchild of Nancy Jacobi, founder of The Japanese Paper Place. She first introduced washi to Canada in 1982 through her tiny store on Queen Street West. Since that introduction this renewable resource has become a central medium for thousands of artists in both Canada and abroad who appreciate its beauty, versatility and permanence. The JPP houses a vast collection of Japanese papers and fills daily orders to stores and artistic communities around the world.

For the Summit, The Japanese Paper Place has partnered with the Japan Foundation towards their common goals: to educate the art public on the practicality and the sustainability of Japanese papers, and above all to encourage Japanese papermakers in preserving an ancient craft that has become indispensible to discerning artists everywhere.

For current updates and scheduling, visit: www.worldwashisummit.com